OWGR - Week #4

Congratulations to Robert Rock and Brandt Snedeker for their wins this week in Abu Dhabi and Torrey Pines, respectively!
This was undoubtedly Robert Rock's finest hour, and he is rewarded with the highest number of owgr points so far this year and a jump up to #55 in the world! Snedeker's dramatic play-off win means that he is climbing now to a carreer best #15, right ahead of the legendary names of Phil Mickelson (#16) and Tiger Woods (#17). Kyle Stanley has only himself to blame for losing the Farmers' title, but the runner up spot still gives him the satisfaction of entering the top 100 elite and a carreer best #87.

Otherwise, Rory's runner up finish in Abu Dhabi means that he is moving back to #2 in the world and building a bit of a gap between himself and Lee at #3, while McDowell is moving up to #11. And it's bye, bye top 100 - at least for now - for Anthony Kim!

The OWGR table after week #4 should look like this:

1 Luke Donald
2 Rory McIlroy
3 Lee Westwood
4 Martin Kaymer
5 Steve Stricker
6 Webb Simpson
7 Adam Scott
8 Charl Schwartzel
9 Dustin Johnson
10 Jason Day
----------------------------
11 Graeme McDowell
12 Matt Kuchar
13 K.J. Choi
14 Nick Watney
15 Brandt Snedeker
16 Phil Mickelson
17 Tiger Woods
18 Sergio Garcia
19 Hunter Mahan
20 Justin Rose
21 Ian Poulter
22 Bill Haas
23 Paul Casey
24 Bubba Watson
25 Alvaro Quiros
26 Simon Dyson
27 Louis Oosthuizen
28 David Toms
29 Keegan Bradley
30 Kim Kyung-Tae
31 Robert Karlsson
32 Thomas Bjorn
33 Bo Van Pelt
34 Martin Laird
35 Rickie Fowler
36 Anders Hansen
37 Jason Dufner
38 Bae Sang-Moon
39 Francesco Molinari
40 John Senden
41 Fredrik Jacobson
42 Mark Wilson
43 Geoff Ogilvy
44 Zach Johnson
45 Retief Goosen
46 Peter Hanson
47 Miguel Jimenez
48 Aaron Baddeley
49 Gonzalo Fdez-C.
50 Ryo Ishikawa
--------------------------
51 Y.E. Yang
52 Darren Clarke
53 Jonathan Byrd
54 Gary Woodland
55 Robert Rock
56 Jim Furyk
57 Matteo Manassero
58 Ben Crane
59 Ernie Els
60 Greg Chalmers
61 Ryan Moore
62 Robert Allenby
63 Charles Howell III
64 Joost Luiten
--------------------------
65 Rory Sabbatini
66 Toru Taniguchi
67 Alexander Noren
68 Sean O'Hair
69 Vijay Singh
70 Johnson Wagner
71 Nicolas Colsaerts
72 Kevin Na
73 Hiroyuki Fujita
74 George Coetzee
75 Chez Reavie
76 Edoardo Molinari
77 Lucas Glover
78 Paul Lawrie
79 Pablo Larazabal
80 Ryan Palmer
81 Jacko Van Zyl
82 Thomas Aiken
83 Jeff Overton
84 Yuta Ikeda
85 David Lynn
86 Robert Garrigus
87 Kyle Stanley
88 Harrison Frazar
89 Carl Pettersson
90 Padraig Harrington
91 Brendan Jones
92 Spencer Levin
93 Branden Grace
94 Tetsuji Hiratsuka
95 Gregory Havret
96 Jamie Donaldson
97 D.A. Points
98 Chris Kirk
99 Camilo Villegas
100 Koumei Oda
---------------------------
101 Charley Hoffman
102 Anthony Kim
103 Michael Hoey
....

And Kyle Stanley misses out on a prospective trip to the Masters and the MatchPlay.

Great stuff pd, pgatour.com will be about a day behind you!

Just missed to give KJ his points for yesterday last night, now it's corrected...

Interesting.

Robert Rock must be pinching himself - it seemed in his post-win interview he hadn't even considered the implication for the OWGR.

Three Americans in the top ten, and if you'd told me that a year ago, I don't think I'd have picked those three.

I would guess Paul Casey will fair plummet down the order now.

And looking down the table, it definitely feels like a major changing of the guard is in progress.

Just two weeks, then, until the WGC MatchPlay cut-off.
We know Mickelson will be absent, the are reports that Casey might return in the nick of time, but nothing heard recently about Jacobson following last autumn's injury and his recent withdrawals from Tour events.

So, at least the top 65 will get in and possibly the top 66 or maybe more.

Looks like Coetzee and Lawrie of those outside the top 70 carry the most momentum to get to Tucson; looks like Els will just make it, but Vijay Singh will need another top finish to squeak in.

I really admire Paul Lawrie for the way he has decided to finish his career on a high and hope to see feature in the seasons Wgc'c and majors.

Quick early count for this week's main events:

- Qatar around 48 points (50 last year)
- Phoenix around 50-52 points (50 last year)

What amazed me was the reducing number of American players in top 50. Rough count of about 18 and simlar amount in 51 -100. So roughly 36 in top 100. Don't know numbers say 2-3 years ago and how they compare.

I think you'd be surprised, Noel.

I'm just looking at the end of 2008, for instance:
Americans ranked:

1-10: 2 (Woods, Mickelson)
11-20: 5 (Kim, Furyk, Perry, Cink, Stricker)
21-30: 2 (Leonard, Curtis)
31-40: 0
41-50: 3 (Mahan, Johnson, Weekley)

Total in top 50: 12

51-60: 4
61-70: 3
71-80: 4
81-90: 4
91-100: 4

Total ranked 51st 100th: 19

Would say the loss of dominance by Furyk, Mickelson and Woods (not necessarily in that order), has opened the floodgates for a new generation of Americans some way below the top level, whereas the number of Australians, for instance is declining, some Europeans as well.

Kwini, is very surprising. Many give the impression that American dominance within top 100 slipping but your comparison shows that not the case.

wikipedia has a good bit on representation in the top 100:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_World_Golf_Ranking#Breakdown_by_nationality

Ned,great link. Who was the Namibian back in 1998. This is the only time Namibia appears in that chart.

Trevor Dodds!

Kwini, below is summary taken from Wiki but doesn't say what up to these days:-

Trevor George Dodds (born 26 September 1959) is a Namibian professional golfer.

Dodds was born in Windhoek, Namibia. He turned pro in 1985. He won the Canadian Tour Order of Merit in 1995 and 1996. Dodds has compiled 15 wins on four different tours: the PGA Tour, Nationwide Tour, Sunshine Tour and the Canadian Tour.
Professional wins (15)

PGA Tour wins (1) Apr 26, 1998 Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic -12 (68-69-70-69=276) Playoff1 Scott Verplank
1Defeated Verplank with par on first extra hole.

Nationwide Tour wins (4)1990 Ben Hogan Deer Creek Open, Ben Hogan Kansas City Classic
1997 NIKE Miami Valley Open
2001 BUY.COM Virginia Beach Open

Sunshine Tour wins (4)1988 Goodyear Classic
1990 Protea Assurance South African Open, Trustbank Tournament of Champions
1998 Goodyear Classic
Canadian Tour wins (6)1995 Canadian PGA Championship, Xerox Manitoba Open
1996 Ed Tel Classic, Henry Singer Alberta Open, Infiniti Classic, Canadian Open (not the PGA Tour event)

Trevor Dodds is a non-exempt Champions Tour player, was 7th in the 2010 Senior Open Championship.
Described on pgatour.com as coming from Nambia - obviously Tim Finchem wrote that entry.

Just googled an image. I wrongly assumed he was black player from the African continent having a go on PGA tour and that is why he grabbed my attention within chart of players in USA set out in link provided by Ned. No great surprise I was wrong.

NedB-H wrote:wikipedia has a good bit on representation in the top 100:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_World_Golf_Ranking#Breakdown_by_nationality

Nice link, it is sort of surprising to see how bad Canada are at golf. I guess 6 months plus of snow is not great for maintaining a swing.

Think you'll see an improvement though, Mac, Some good players on the way.

Sick note from Nick Watney; so might be closer to 50 pts to the Phoenix winner than 52?

Yep, it's Phoenix @50 and Qatar @48 at the moment.

Lee will get back to #2 with a solo 3rd, Webb could move to #4 with a win...
Sergio, Lefty, Snedd, all could climb to the top 10 with wins this week...

Looks like Choi and Mahan rather mailed it in today. Lawrie looking to take care of top 50 business in the fast lane?

No Ernie Els in the Pebble Beach field so he's rolling the dice with his position in the top 65! And no Freddie Jac either.
But KT Kim and Ishikawa confirmed for Riviera the week after.

Can't quite understand the thinking of Noren and Luiten who chose to skip Qatar, they must be very confident of getting a good result in Dubai, otherwise their chances to make it into Match Play will be compromised.

Good to see though almost all the other ET guys still within reach of top 65 playing decently this week. Apart from Colsaerts and Paul Lawrie, you have Lynn who's playing well and with a solo 3rd or better he can hope for a last minute ticket, and then there are Coetzee, Larrazabal, Van Zyl, Grace who are still in with a shout tomorrow for a good finish... Looks like an interesting battle for those last Match Play places over the next 1-2 weeks...

Ernie would've been reasonably safe in different circumstances, but with all these guys keeping up their game and hopes to the last minute, he can never be sure. What I don't understand is that because of his current divisor situation, Els wouldn't have had anything to lose by playing next week, any little point that he could've scraped there would only help his case...

Here's provisional owgr standings in the critical area for Match Play based on the situation as it stands after 2 rounds in Qatar and Phoenix. Paul Lawrie and Levin would be above those if they go ahead and win. Based on this Els would be already in deep trouble...

....
55 Nicolas Colsaerts
56 Jonathan Byrd
57 Ben Crane
58 Harrison Frazar
59 Gary Woodland
60 Robert Rock
61 Jim Furyk
62 Greg Chalmers
63 Matteo Manassero
64 Ernie Els
-----------------------------------------
65 Charles Howell III
66 Robert Allenby
67 Ryan Moore
68 Johnson Wagner
69 Joost Luiten
70 Rory Sabbatini
71 Toru Taniguchi
72 Alexander Noren
73 Vijay Singh
74 Kevin Na
75 George Coetzee
76 Sean O'Hair
77 Hiroyuki Fujita
78 Ryan Palmer
79 Chez Reavie
80 Lucas Glover
81 Kyle Stanley
82 Pablo Larazabal
83 Jacko Van Zyl
84 Edoardo Molinari
85 David Lynn
86 Thomas Aiken
87 Jeff Overton
88 Carl Pettersson
89 Robert Garrigus
90 Branden Grace
...

I'm thinking Ernie is fractionally better off after four rounds than after 3?

But still in deep trouble!